Ryan Gosling Live Debuts I'm Just Ken at Oscars
Ryan Gosling returned to the Oscar stage along with 65 other Kens and wowed the star-studded Oscar audience with the live debut of his Barbie hit on Sunday.
Gosling and his boys brought some much-needed rockstar energy to the Hollywood Blvd. stage while paying tribute to Marilyn Monroe’s “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” (and Madonnas Material Girl) with Busby Berkeley choreography and a heavy dose of comedy.
The Oscar-nominated Im Just Ken was written and produced by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt who rocked out alongside the actor on bass and piano, respectively.
Their sound was elevated by two surprise guests on guitar: Wolfgang Van Halen and Slash, both of whom are also on the original recording.
Last July when Ronson was asked why he chose the Guns N Roses guitarist to play on the Grammy-nominated tune whose official video has been seen more than 14 million times on YouTube and won the Critics Choice Award (over Billie and Finneas) for Best Song Written for Visual Media, he said it was because growing up Slash was his all-time hero.
The producer and musician said, I had pictures of Slash all over my wall, so when we were getting this song done, I thought it never hurts to ask.
Slash told him it was a good song. And how often is Slash wrong?
But if you listen closely one of the solos is pure Van Halen.
Mark Ronson showing the Van Halen portion of ...Ken.During the performance Gosling made his way down to the front row and got some backing vocals from writer/director Greta Gerwig, and his Barbie co-stars Margot Robbie and America Ferrera.
The other Oscar performances setlists can be found here.
Afterwards the ceremony, Ronson told Entertainment Tonight Goslings performance was, the peak, the highlight, of anything thats happened with Ken. Tonight was so great.
It had one of his former co-stars literally in stitches.
Like many in the audience, as Gosling was dancing about and breaking wooden boards, Emma was rocking out to the song.
At one point she broke the back of her Louis Vuitton dress and as soon as she made her way to the wings of the stage, she was stitched back together.
The kismet of Stone and Gosling having big nights again at the Dolby harkens back to 2017 when they were at the Oscars for La La Land. It was the night that Emma would win her first Oscar and Ryan would be caught giggling as the Warren Beatty/Faye Dunaway/Moonlight envelope screw up unfolded in front of his eyes.
Seven years later they return, both huge stars of the show.
While Gosling has no plans, yet, of going on tour with this crowd-pleasing act, Wolfie and Slash are out there.
Wolfgangs band Mammoth are heading to Europe at the end of this month and coming back to the States in May. Get your tickets on the Mammoth website.
And Slash rocks the Philippines on Tuesday, then Thailand on Friday, followed by several dates in the UK.
Maybe hes dust off some more rare Guns n Roses material we havent heard yet.
Get your tickets on Slashs website.
And if that Andrew Wyatt name sounds familiar, it could be because he is the frontman of the glorious Swedish trio Miike Snow, who are preparing their first proper tour since 2017.
Their first stop is on May 3 at the Center Stage in Atlanta. The next day they play the Shaky Knees Fest. Then they fly out to LA for the Just Like Heaven Fest. More dates and tickets can be seen here.